August 28, 2017

Interest/Postjudgment Enforcement: Interest Accrues On First Entry of Judgment, Even When Costs (Fees Included) Are Included Later

Complicated Interpleader Dispute Still Results In Interest Accrual Result Described Above.

Wertheim, LLC v. Currency Corp., Case No. B270926 (2d Dist., Div. 5 Aug. 25, 2017) (unpublished) involved a complicated interpleader/postjudgment dispute between various parties, among which was an insurer of an appeal bond in favor of plaintiff Wertheim. For purposes of this blog, Wertheim won a postjudgment accrual of interest issue that implicates attorney’s fees and costs. Specifically, the Court of Appeal concluded that interest begins to accrue on an initial judgment amount, even if it is later amended to include significant costs and attorney’s fees. However, in an interesting twist, the appellate panel concluded interest stopped once the appeal bond surety tendered a rejected check to the superior court during convoluted proceedings, although it did agree that simply obtaining an appeals bond was not the equivalent of a tender or payment of the judgment for purposes of stopping interest accrual.